Perhaps at times we would prefer a God who doesn’t meddle in our lives with his will, and allows us to manage things according to how we think is best, suggested Pope Francis before praying the midday Angelus on August 8.
The Holy Father proposed that as the people of the Gospel are scandalized by a man from Nazareth claiming he’s the “bread come down from heaven,” we too might be scandalized in his involvement in our lives.
But “God became man to enter into the concrete reality of this world; to enter into our concrete reality, God became man for me, for you, for all of us, in order to enter into our life. And He is interested in every aspect of our life. We can tell him about what we are feeling, our work, our day, our heartache, our anguish, so many things. We can tell Him everything because Jesus wants this intimacy with us.”
“What does he not want?,” the Pope asked. “To be relegated to being considered a side dish – he who is Bread – to be overlooked and set aside, or called on only when we need him.”
The Pope explained that in making himself the Bread of Life, he indicates how essential he is. “We need bread to live.”
Jesus reveals himself as bread, that is, the essential, what is necessary for everyday life; without Him it does not work. Not one bread among many others, but the bread of life.
In other words, without him, rather than living, we get by: because he alone nourishes the soul; he alone forgives us from that evil that we cannot overcome on our own; he alone makes us feel loved even if everyone else disappoints us; he alone gives us the strength to love and, he alone gives us the strength to forgive in difficulties; he alone gives that peace to the heart that it is searching for; he alone gives eternal life when life here on earth ends. He is the essential bread of life.
And today we celebrate...